Communion Town A City In Ten Chapters

This was a huge disappointment. If the writer set out to consistently annoy the reader, he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. 'Withholding' was the word that came to mind with most of the stories. A common trick was to hint at some life changing event or information for one of the characters and then have that information revealed 'off-screen' or not revealed at all. It made me wonder whether the author actually knew what this information was or whether they were just happy to write 'vignettes' where form was everything and content was optional. It also made me wonder that such a book was longlisted for the Mann Booker. If you want to read a great novel about how perceptions shape the place people live in, I'd recommend China Mieville's The City and The City instead.